Liam Condon, the new chief executive of Johnson Matthey, is obviously a superb salesman. The initial response to the company’s announcement of a £217 million annual loss and strategy update last week was to knock 248p, or 10.5 per cent, off the share price. But after the analysts’ Q&A session with Condon, they returned yesterday with “buy” recommendations and raised targets for the shares.
Their second thoughts were understandable. Johnson is a complex business with many moving parts, compounded by the volatility inherent in operations relying on metals and minerals.
For 50 years Johnson has been best known for catalytic converters, which turn exhaust fumes into carbon dioxide. But with batteries going to kill off the internal combustion engine, Johnson had to reinvent itself. The
